On November 20th, 2008 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with Suzanne Lieurance about how to convert your passion for writing into a viable career as a freelance writer. In addition to being the author of more than 20 published books, Lieurance offers a variety of coaching programs via private phone calls, teleclasses, listserv, and private email for writers who want to turn their love of writing (for children and/or adults) into a part-time or full-time career. We talked about all types of freelance writing and what it takes to get started as a freelance writer, common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid, how much you can really expect to make, how to build your writing resume, and ghost writing. We also touched on some secrets for success in writing for children’s books.

Suzanne Lieurance is a fulltime children’s author, freelance writer, and The Working Writer’s Coach. She teaches children’s writing for the Institute of Children’s Literature based in West Redding, Connecticut, and is the founder and director of the National Writing for Children Center. Lieurance has written articles for a variety of magazines, newsletters, and e-zines like Family-Fun, Kansas City Weddings, Instructor Magazine, New Moon for Girls, Children’s Writer, and many others. She hosts a talk show about children’s books, called Book Bites for Kids, every weekday afternoon on blogtalkradio.com.

Hello and welcome to a special edition of Authors Access Live. This program was recorded in front of a live audience on November 9th 2008 at the 5th Annual Essence of Motown Literary Jam Weekend at the Southern Fires Restaurant in Detroit Michigan. This event was sponsored by the the Motown Writers Network. This talk features Ryan Johnson of the Guild of Blades Retail Group talking about POD Printing Books and Games. GOB is the only POD printer in the USA with walk-in service (as opposed to uploading your files to an impersonal web server) and features mixed (color and black-and-white pages) book printing as well as POD card deck printing, both of which are extremely rare in my experience.

The Guild of Blades Publishing Group is a Detroit area based adventure games and entertainment publishing company. Today the company is the publisher of a half dozen unique gaming brands and publishes and distributes more than 100 in print gaming SKUs. These games range from historical and fantasy board games, miniature games, role playing games and general strategy games. Its core brands include the Empires of History line of historical board games, Overlords: Fantast Battlescape Wargame line, Button Wars Tactical Spaceship Combat Game, Worlds of Heroes & Tyrants Fantasy Quest Board Game and Epic Adventure Role Playing Game and Heroes Forever Role Playing Game. The Guild of Blades is also the publisher of a growing catalog of electronic downloadable PDF games with brands such as Grunt 3rd Edition Fantasy Miniature Battles, Dark Realms Role Playing Universe, Risk Variants, G-spot Games’s adult humor products and e-product versions of select print games. More recent major expansion programs include the
Guild’s launch of the Empires of History Online Gaming Network, a growing network of turn based multi-player online strategy computer games plus the Guild of Blades Fiction Group

Hello and welcome to a special edition of Authors Access Live. This program was recorded in front of a live audience on November 9th 2008 at the 5th Annual Essence of Motown Literary Jam Weekend at the Southern Fires Restaurant in Detroit Michigan. This event was sponsored by the the Motown Writers Network. This talk features Edna Washington of Washington Consultants with over 15 years accounting and computer experience. Washington Consultants provides accounting and computer services to small businesses. Computer skills training for youth and adults is also a service offered by Washington Consultants.

On November 6th, 2008 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with author and entrepreur Valerie Connelly of Nightengale Press about digital print-on-demand publishing and how it has changed the familiar landscape for authors and publishers. Valerie is the founder of Nightengale Press, an independent publisher that has produced 80 books since 2003. She shared with us her unique and hard-won expertise on marketing, cover design, bookstore placement and much more. Her latest book is an anthology entitled Calling All Authors: How to Publish with your Eyes Wide Open

An educator, artist, and world traveler fluent in French and English, Valerie Connelly manages Nightengale Press is now part of Nightengale Media LLC offering its authors a first class website, bookstore, marketing opportunities and more. Ms. Connelly is also the host of the Calling All Authors show at Global Talk Radio. Also, she is an artist whose paintings are exhibited around the USA. She is a member of the Cedarburg Artist Guild. Her works are available as original paintings and as prints.When anyone listening to this program today purchases Calling All Authos: How to Publish with Your Eyes Wide Open at 30% Off use the coupon code AUTHORSACCESS and you’ll receive a free bonus novel by Valerie Connelly

Authors Access proudly announces our first collaborative book: Authors Access: 28 Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers, Ed. by Irene Watson, Tyler Tichelaar, and Victor R. Volkman. This book contains the distilled wisdom of two dozen guests to the Authors Access show in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand reference. Organized into chapters that reflect the lifecycle of your book, ”Authors Access: 28 Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers” lets you learn about best practices and avoid pitfalls in writing, editing, cover design, marketing, book reviews, online presence, genre and children’s books and other key topics.